...apparently he got stung on the hand, once. Ohhh the poor lamb and what with 300 hundred or so police etc to protect him. Sweet Jesus! Get real!

To date 186,000 thousand people have "official" contracted the disease - those who have contracted it unofficially will no doubt be fined. There have been 93 CHIK related deaths, of which 53 directly. Of course the papers are having a jolly time spreading rumours, statistics and complete gobbledygook like strawberry jam on a sandwich for consummation by a population that is already suffering from gorging on the saccharine words of politicians and their fizzy pop platitudes.

Make the comparison between Europe’s' preparation for bird flu and its (well France's) total lack of preparation and understanding for CHIK - or is it now Dengue+CHIK? Granted we have now been offered lots of money, but for what? It would seem that it is to promote a publicity campaign to inform the masses against the threat of Mossies etc. As "Le Monde" rather cynically pointed out in its editorial last week, as 30% of the population are illiterate it would seem rather pointless. However, I do not trust their stats. and the sight of all the buses with huge mosquitoes on their butts declaring "Together against Chikungunya" is certainly cause for a smirk.

It is enough to turn one into a radical independentist. Come to think of it where are all those independentists? The "Lonely Planet" guide rather lamentingly complains that even the communist party is "pro-colonist". This talk of neo-colonialism could lead to a very long rant, but as it is Sunday and it has been raining for 48 hours I shall point you in the direction of the only pro-independence journal on the island that I know of - www.lorenione.info

It is still raining and all this rain will probably wash all that insecticide into the lagoon - this of course will be a relief to some, especially those poor kids who were intoxicated at their primary school earlier this week due to an "error of communication". It is probably not very good news for the environment, and in case you haven't worked it out yet, we are part of the environment...

the lagoon this week before the arrival of Diwa

Mind you, at last, someone has come out and said that the "lutte contre le moustique" is a complete waste of both time and money :

It is still raining. But then in order to lighten the load, let us talk of of merrier things. I went to a murder party last week and unfortunately for you I was not to be the victim. It was all jolly fun even if my esteemed friend described my performance as "enthusiastic" which makes me think more of Tommy Cooper than Hugh Grant... Pahf, but thanks to Andrew and you can find my site of the evening here.